Will Loomis thinks that Jessie J's song 'Domino' is a ripoff
of his song 'Bright Red Chords', allegedly. But how many notes does it
take to be scoundrel in the music business?

I am almost reluctant to give you this link, because it goes to a site where you can waste more time unproductively
than you ever thought possible. However, in fairness, this is where I
heard about the story. Who knows where they heard it from?

In
short, Will Loomis of the band Loomis &The Lust accuses (allegedly -
every verb in this article will have the same adverb implied from now
on) Jessie J of stealing his song Bright Red Chords and fashioning it into her Domino. The evidence...

I bet you thought there was going to be some over exaggeration going
on here but, no, the tune of the verse is the same in both songs. Take a
note, go up a major third, then down a fourth from the starting point
with a minor third as a passing note. Basically it is five notes, and
the rhythm is quite similar too.

I don't hear any other
similarities other than those imposed by Western music only having
twelve different notes to work with. So it boils down to those five
notes. Loomis (insert adverb) says that he never gave Jessie J
permission to use his song. And he is suing her for who knows how many
countless millions.

Now, suppose it had been the other way round.
Typically if Major Publisher A feels that Small Guy Musician B has
stolen one of their songs, they will use their financial power to get
all of Small Guy B's money. Yes, all of it. This has happened. So if the
copying had been the other way round, I would expect Loomis to lose,
legally, financially and completely.

But in this case, if it goes
to court, Loomis will probably only be able to afford dimwit lawyers,
while Jessie J's publisher will have the brightest legal brains on the
planet. And they can afford to appeal if the decision goes the wrong
way. I would expect that Loomis will have to settle out of court. We
will never get to know what the settlement is, but I would expect that
he gets a modest payoff in return for shutting up and never speaking
about the matter again.

But...

Does five notes constitute a ripoff? This depends on how distinctive the combination of notes is. Think of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind - don't even consider using those same five notes in your song.

But
in my opinion, both Loomis and J (if I might call her J) are using a
generic combination of notes that has almost certainly been used many
times before. All that is necessary is to find the same combination in
someone else's earlier song and Loomis has no claim to J's money.

And
if the same combination can be found in the work of someone who is long
dead and out of copyright, then anyone can use these notes freely. I'm
sure Mr. J.S. Bach must have featured them at some stage in his
massively complicated works of counterpoint.

My view is that these
are both entertaining songs. No-one will remember them in five years'
time, but for today they keep people happy. Let Jessie sing her version
of these notes to millions, and Loomis bask in the glow of publicity for
a while. No harm done.